Deuteronomy 10-12

Amplified Bible

The Tablets Rewritten

10 “At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Cut out for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain, and make an ark (chest) of wood for yourself. ² I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you shattered, and you shall put them in the ark.’ ³ So I made an ark of acacia wood and cut out two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain ^[a]with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ The Lord wrote on the tablets, like the first writing, the Ten ^[b]Commandments which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly; then the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark which I had made; and they are there, just as the Lord commanded me.”

⁶ (Now the sons of Israel traveled from the wells of the sons of Jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died and there he was buried and Eleazar his son ministered as priest in his place. ⁷ From there they traveled to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of brooks of water. ⁸ At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to serve Him and to bless in His name until this day. ⁹ Therefore, Levi does not have a portion or inheritance [of tribal land] with his brothers; ^[c]the Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God ^[d]has promised him.)

¹⁰ “And I stayed on the mountain, like the first time, forty days and nights, and the Lord listened to me at that time also; the Lord was not willing to destroy you. ¹¹ Then the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go on your journey ahead of the people, so that they may go in and take possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give to them.’

¹² “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear [and worship] the Lord your God [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect], to walk [that is, to live each and every day] in all His ways and to love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul [your choices, your thoughts, your whole being], ¹³ and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? ¹⁴ Behold, the heavens and the highest of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth and all that is in it. ¹⁵ Yet the Lord ^[e]had a delight in loving your fathers and set His affection on them, and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. ¹⁶ So circumcise [that is, remove sin from] your heart, and be stiff-necked (stubborn, obstinate) no longer. ¹⁷ For the Lord your ^[f]God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the awesome God who does not show ^[g]partiality nor take a bribe. ¹⁸ He ^[h]executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and ^[i]shows His love for the stranger (resident alien, foreigner) by giving him food and clothing. ¹⁹ Therefore, show your love for the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ You shall fear [and worship] the Lord your God [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect]; you shall serve Him and cling to Him [hold tightly to Him, be united with Him], and you shall swear [oaths] by His name. ²¹ He is your praise and glory; He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which you have seen with your own eyes. ²² Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy persons [in all], and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Rewards of Obedience

11 “Therefore you shall love the Lord your God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His precepts, and His commandments [it is your obligation to Him]. ² Know this day that I am not speaking to your children who have not known [by personal experience] and who have not seen [firsthand] the instruction and discipline of the Lord your God—His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm; ³ and His signs and His works which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land; ⁴ and what He did to the army of Egypt, to its horses and its chariots, when He made the water of the ^[j]Red Sea engulf them as they pursued you, and how the Lord ^[k]completely destroyed them; ⁵ and what He did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place; ⁶ and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that ^[l]followed them, in the midst of all Israel.^{(A) 7} For your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord which He did.

⁸ “Therefore, you shall keep all the commandments which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and take possession of the land which you are crossing over [the Jordan] to possess; ⁹ so that you may live long on the land which the Lord swore (solemnly promised) to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land [of great abundance,] ^[m]flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ For the land which you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered ^[n]it with your foot like a garden of vegetables. ¹¹ But the land into which you are about to cross to possess, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, ¹² a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

¹³ “It shall come about, if you listen obediently and pay attention to My commandments which I command you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul [your choices, your thoughts, your whole being]— ¹⁴ that ^[o]He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early [fall] rain and the late [spring] rain, so that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your [olive] oil. ¹⁵ And ^[p]He will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied. ¹⁶ Beware that your hearts are not deceived, and that you do not turn away [from the Lord] and serve other gods and worship them, ¹⁷ or [else] the Lord’s anger will be kindled and burn against you, and He will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the land will not yield its fruit; and you will perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸ “Therefore, you shall impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul, and tie them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as ^[q]bands (frontals, frontlets) on your forehead. ¹⁹ You shall teach them [diligently] to your ^[r]children [impressing God’s precepts on their minds and penetrating their hearts with His truths], speaking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. ²⁰ You shall write them on the ^[s]doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹ so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as ^[t]long as the heavens are above the earth. ²² For if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk [that is, to live each and every day] in all His ways and to hold tightly to Him— ²³ then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you shall dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. ²⁴ Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall become yours; your territory shall be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea (the Mediterranean). ²⁵ No man will be able to stand before you; the Lord your God will lay the fear and the dread of you on all the land on which you set foot, just as He has spoken to you.

²⁶ “Behold, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse— ²⁷ the blessing, if you listen to and obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today; ²⁸ and the curse, if you do not listen to and obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following (acknowledging, worshiping) other gods which you have not known.

²⁹ “It shall come about, when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to possess, that you shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.^{(B) 30} Are they not across the Jordan, west of the road, toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? ³¹ For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall possess it and live in it, ³² and you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am setting before you today.

Laws of the Sanctuary

12 “These are the statutes and judgments (precepts) which you shall be careful to do in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess as long as you live on the earth. ² You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and the hills and under every green [leafy] tree. ³ You shall tear down their altars and smash their [idolatrous] pillars and burn their ^[u]Asherim in the fire; you shall cut down the carved and sculpted images of their gods and obliterate their name from that place. ⁴ You shall not act like this toward the Lord your God. ⁵ But you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to establish His ^[v]Name there for His dwelling [place], and there you shall come [to worship Him]. ⁶ There you shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the contribution of your hand, your votive (pledged, vowed) offerings, your freewill (voluntary) offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. ⁷ And there you and your households shall eat before the Lord your God, and rejoice in all to which you put your hand, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁸ “You shall not do at all what we are doing here [in the camp] today, every man doing whatever is right in his [own] eyes. ⁹ For you have not yet come to the resting place and to the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰ When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security, ¹¹ then it shall come about that the place which the Lord your God will choose for His Name [and Presence] to dwell; there you shall bring everything that I am commanding you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes and the [voluntary] contribution of your hand [as a first gift from the fruits of the ground], and all your choice votive offerings which you vow to the Lord. ¹² And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, and your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your [city] gates, since he has no portion or inheritance with you.

¹³ “Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every [cultic] place you see, ¹⁴ but [only] in the place which the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do everything that I am commanding you.

¹⁵ “However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your [city] gates, whatever you wish, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you [as His generous provision for daily life]. The [ceremonially] unclean and the clean may eat it, such as the gazelle and the deer. ¹⁶ Only you shall not eat the blood; you are to pour it out on the ground like water. ¹⁷ You are forbidden to eat within your [city] gates the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, or the firstborn of your herd or flock, or any of your votive offerings, or your freewill offerings, or the contribution of your hand. ¹⁸ But you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, and your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your [city] gates; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all ^[w]that you undertake. ¹⁹ Be careful that you do not neglect the Levite [who serves God] ^[x]as long as you live in your land.

²⁰ “When the Lord your God extends your territory, as He promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because you want to eat meat, then you may eat meat, whatever ^[y]you wish. ²¹ If the place which the Lord your God chooses to put His Name (Presence) is too far away from you, then you may slaughter [animals] from your herd or flock which the Lord has given you, just as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your [city] gates whatever you wish. ²² Just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat it [but not make it an offering]; the [ceremonially] unclean and the clean alike may eat it. ²³ Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life (soul), and you shall not eat the life with the meat. ²⁴ You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water. ²⁵ You shall not eat it, so that all may be well with you and with your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the sight of the Lord. ²⁶ However, you shall take your holy things which you have [to offer] and your votive (pledged, vowed) offerings, you shall take them and go to the place which the Lord will choose. ²⁷ And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God; and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall eat the meat.

²⁸ “Be careful to listen to all these words which I am commanding you, so that it may be well with you and with your ^[z]children after you forever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

²⁹ “When the Lord your God cuts off and destroys before you the nations which you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and settle in their land, ³⁰ beware that you are not lured (ensnared) into following them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods, so that I too may do likewise?’ ³¹ You shall not behave this way toward the Lord your God, for they have done for their gods every repulsive thing which the Lord hates; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire [as sacrifices] to their gods.

³² “Everything I command you, you shall be careful to do it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.